The Final Fantasy VII Remake: A new worry?

The Final Fantasy VII Remake buzz is in full swing. The reaction from fans was ecstatic. Everyone loved it. With the release of the official trailer for the Final Fantasy VII Remake fans all over the world got to see Cloud and Barrett begin their perilous adventure against global baddies Shinra. Check out the stunning trailer below.

Everything was all fine and dandy, the world was shining and the life stream flowed strong. Then the following information was released to the world by Square Enix, and the world went ape s**t.

“The new trailer features CG scenes as well as offering a first look at gameplay footage from this highly-anticipated remake. FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE will be told across a multi-part series with each entry providing its own unique experience.”

That’s right loyal readers, you read that right. The Final Fantasy VII Remake will be split into multiple parts. To say that fans had vastly differing opinions would be an understatement, so lets give you an idea with our opinions on the hot topic.

A horrible glimpse into the posible future of the Final Fantasy VII Remake

Graham

Guys, there have a lot of varying opinions on the Final Fantasy VII Remake multi-part fiasco. People either love it or hate it. There are those who don’t care because lets face it, there are people who will pick this up regardless. I will say this, we have no idea the layout of these multi-parts. We don’t know the pricing, the length, or even the style. What we do know is that we have a Final Fantasy VII Remake, finally and the possibilities are tremendous. Here’s an idea I had, walk with me, an idea of how Square Enix could lay out the episodes of the Final Fantasy VII Remake.

This is where I hope they’re going, because this allows for epic storytelling on a scale we’ve never seen before. It could be make the Final Fantasy VII Remake into a cinematic event every time the next episode is released.

Tom

I am in the process of getting Cloud a dress. This one sentence, encapsulates the bizarre and wonderful that happens in this game. There is a certain love for the quirky-ness of this 1997 JRPG from Squaresoft. However, the worry today is that the modern incarnation of Square, ‘Square-Enix‘, have made a miss-step with how this sacred cow of the PS1 era of games is to be re-made. Serialising the game into varying parts and cutting up the game across an unknown amount of time of release is a massive clanger for the developer. Releasing the game piecemeal only serves to fuel the idea that the developer not only disregards the voice of the fans, but also sees us as a massive cash-cow; which, to be fair, we are. I’ve just bought the PC port for my PS4 as an example.

There’s a loud clamour for this game to merely be a re-hash of the original with updated localisation of the story and updating the graphics. That, would just be a fallacy and a waste of resources for the developers. To truly deliver a stand out experience, they need to look at everything as a whole and as my colleague Graham mentions, the entire Final Fantasy VII story is covered across a plethora of games and a movie, so it could very well be the case that Square-Enix, along with Cyberconnect2, are looking at everything from this series and have decided to add more than the core game to this remake. As Tetsuya Nomura himself says; “To those who played the original version will know the important parts and understand the story from the beginning to the end. Also for these people, I hope that they can be surprised once again.” I believe we will be surprised, however, it remains to be seen if that will be good or bad.

Saul

I am of the camp that was less than pleased to hear that the remake will be released in multiple parts. The episodic format lends itself to linear storytelling, which is not at all suitable for an epic RPG where you can explore the world at your own pace. And I can’t see them making it as one episode per disc as some fans are hoping; if they could do that they could just save time by releasing it as a multi-disc game again. I’m losing faith that Square Enix really care what their fans want, so I have no choice but to accept whatever changes they’re making if I want to have any chance of enjoying the remake. I just hope that the story and the characters aren’t affected too much. The game’s format is different and so is the battle system. If they alter the plot or the party members it won’t be a remake anymore; it will just a new game with some elements of the classic.

However if they make an effort to bring the entire Final Fantasy VII collection together as Graham suggested that would impress me. Crisis Core was one of the best games available on PSP, and a brilliant prequel for the series. If any element of it finds its way into the remake it can only be a good thing.

Dominique

I am going to pay big money to see Cloud in a dress in a brothel.

So that’s our two cents, let us all know what your thoughts on the episodic nature of the Final Fantasy VII Remake in the comments below.

Superman enthusiast, pop culture fan and film journalist. Creator of podcast Speakin' Geek and contributor to Scannain.com, iRadio and Spin 103.8. I love talking about anything and everything(except country music, I hate country music). My views are my own and I would love to discuss them with you.